140 WHAT I KNOW OF FARMING. 



nowhere else seen fairly equaled. Upland Virginia 

 and the mountainous portion of the States southward 

 of her may in time surpass the most favored regions 

 of the North in the abundance, variety and excellence 

 of their fruits ; for the Peach and the Grape find here 

 a congenial climate, while they are grown with diffi- 

 culty, where they can be grown at all, in the North ; 

 but, up to this hour, I judge that our country north 

 of the Potomac is better supplied with wholesome 

 and palatable tree-fruits than any other portion of 

 the earth's surface of equal or nearly equal area. 



On the whole, I deem it a misfortune that our 

 Northern States were so admirably adapted to the 

 Apple and kindred fruit-trees that our pioneer fore- 

 fathers had little more to do than bury the seeds in 

 the ground and wait a few years for the resulting 

 fruit. The soil, formed of decayed trees and their 

 foliage, thickly covered with the ashes of the primi- 

 tive forest, was as genial as soil could be ; while the 

 remaining woods, which still covered seven-eighths 

 of the country, shut out or softened the cold winds 

 of Winter and Spring, rendering it less difficult, a 

 century ago, to grow fine peaches in southern New- 

 Hampshire than it now is in southern New- York. 

 Devastating insects were precluded by those great, 

 dense woods from diffusing themselves from orchard 

 to orchard as they now do. Snows fell more heavily 

 and lay longer then than now, protecting the roots 

 from heavy frosts, and keeping back buds and blos- 

 soms in Spring, to the signal advantage of the husband- 



